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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Sundays with the Queen: The Queen Mother’s Aquamarine Art Deco Brooch

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Happy Mother’s Day to everyone celebrating in the US today! In honor of moms — or, rather, I suppose we should say mums, today we’re looking at a brooch from the Queen Mother’s collection: her aquamarine clip brooch.

On Friday, the Queen wore her mother’s aquamarine and diamond brooch to launch the 70th anniversary celebrations of VE Day. It’s the continuation of a trend: HM tends to wear brooches from her mother’s collection at events commemorating anniversaries from the First and Second World Wars, two events that were turning points in her mother’s life.

The Queen Mum was photographed in this diamond and aquamarine brooch as early as the 1940s. I believe you can see the brooch in the photograph above, taken of the Queen Mum in Stratford in April 1941.

I’m also rather intrigued by the possibility that this is the brooch that the Queen Mum actually wore on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945. The shape looks right, though I’ve not been able to find a clear enough photo to say for certain. (Here’s the best version I’ve found so far.) If it is the same brooch, I’m beyond impressed with the Queen and Angela Kelly.

The Queen inherited her mother’s extensive jewel collection in 2002, and she’s been slowly introducing various pieces into her own jewel rotation ever since. This brooch is a fairly new addition: she wore it for the first time last year at Royal Ascot.

The Queen Mum’s brooch is sometimes confused with the Queen’s own set of diamond and aquamarine clips, which were an eighteenth-birthday present from her parents. Those clips are sometimes identified as being made by Cartier (the company that popularized the style), but the Royal Collection has also identified the maker as Boucheron. The Queen sometimes wears the clips together as a single brooch, but more often, she wears them as a separate pair.

Saturday Sparkler Special: Queen Mary’s Tiaras (Part 1)

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If you thought I couldn’t write blog posts in May without dedicating a series to Princess May herself, Queen Mary, well, you were right! For the rest of the month, our Saturday Sparkler posts are going to be devoted to a series of specials on Queen Mary’s massive tiara collection. We’ll have four posts in total, so if your favorite isn’t featured in this week’s special, stay tuned for next week — it might be there!

This week, we’re kicking off the series with a look at some of Queen Mary’s all-diamond tiaras. Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments below!

Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Queen Mary of the United Kingdom
Maker: E. Wolff and Co. for Garrard, 1919

Made of gold, silver, and diamonds recycled from a tiara she received from Queen Victoria, Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara is a classic and elegant example of the fringe design. In 1936, Mary gave it to her daughter-in-law, the Queen Mum, who then lent it to two famous royal brides: her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, and her granddaughter, Princess Anne. (Read a post all about this tiara here!)

Queen Mary wears Queen Adelaide’s Fringe Tiara, ca. 1913 [source]

Queen Adelaide’s Fringe Tiara


Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Queen Adelaide of the United Kingdom
Maker: Rundell, Bridge, and Co., 1831

Originally a convertible necklace, this piece was made for Queen Adelaide using diamonds that had been taken from insignia worn by her parents-in-law, King George III and Queen Charlotte. Queen Victoria wore it as a tiara, and so did Queen Mary, as you can see in the photograph above. (Queen Alexandra, with her usual flair, wore it essentially as a belt on her coronation gown.) After Queen Mary passed it along to the Queen Mum, it was transformed into a necklace once more, and that’s how it remains today. (Read more about this tiara, and why the Brits don’t have many of Queen Charlotte’s diamonds, over here!)

Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik

Current Owner: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Original Owner: Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom
Maker: Garrard, 1888

Given as a silver wedding present for Queen Alexandra by a committee of aristocratic ladies, the tiara was made to mimic the Russian kokoshnik tiaras popular at the court of Alexandra’s sister, Empress Marie Feodorovna. Alexandra wore the tiara at Queen Mary’s wedding, and then bequeathed it to her in 1925. She passed it along to her granddaughter, Elizabeth II, a quarter century later. (Read a detailed timeline of the tiara’s ownership here — and read gossipy drama about its creation over here!)

The Iveagh Tiara

Current Owner: The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
Original Owner: Queen Mary of the United Kingdom
Maker: Unknown, ca. 1893

This lovely kokoshnik-style tiara was given to Queen Mary as a wedding present by Lord and Lady Iveagh in 1893. It’s one of the only pieces of wedding-gift jewelry that she never significantly altered — with its beautiful, balanced shape, she didn’t really need to. Mary bequeathed the tiara to her daughter-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. Today, it’s still worn by Alice’s daughter-in-law, Birgitte, and it was also a wedding tiara for Alice’s granddaughter, Lady Rose Gilman. (Read more about this tiara here!)

Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau

Current Owner: The Duke and Duchess of Kent
Original Owner: Queen Mary of the United Kingdom
Maker: Garrard, ca. 1925

Queen Mary bought this small diamond bandeau from Garrard in 1925, and she used it for a time with emerald toppers from the Cambridge emerald cache. After her death, the tiara was inherited by her daughter-in-law, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. It’s been worn by several of the Kent ladies, including Princess Alexandra; it was also the present Duchess of Kent’s wedding tiara. Some believe this tiara was partly dismantled to create the small pearl and diamond fringe tiara in the Kent collection.


Love these Saturday Sparkler Special posts? Here are a few more to enjoy!

This Week in Royal Jewels: May 1-7

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May 1-7, 2015
Much of the attention this week was directed at the new princess in town, but there was other glitter on display as well. Be sure to vote for your favorite pieces in the poll!
10. Speaking of that new princess, baby Charlotte already has a new item in her jewelry box. President Rivlin of Israel sent Princess Charlotte a beaded brooch which also includes two charms: a heart and a Hamsa, a symbol of protection. (You can see an image of the brooch here.)

9. Here’s a bit of sparkle we missed last week: Princess Marie-Chantal wore glittering earrings at a launch party for the new book by India Hicks, granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten. India’s necklace, however, out-glittered them all!

8. Another item from last week: last Thursday, Queen Letizia wore a lovely pair of blue and yellow earrings at a luncheon for the Egyptian president.

7. On Monday, Letizia wore a delicate pair of drop earrings at a meeting for the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

6. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were in Venice on Wednesday, where Marie-Christine wore bright jewelry to the Biennale.

5. In Belgium, Queen Mathilde wore golden jewelry at the first session of the annual Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition.

4. On Thursday, Mathilde wore dramatic gold hoop earrings at the ceremony for the Queen Mathilde Prize.

3. On the day she became a great-grandmother for the fifth time, Queen Elizabeth II wore the cap badge of the Royal Lancers while visiting the newly combined regiment in Richmond.

2. On Thursday, the Queen wore one of Queen Victoria’s Bow Brooches during a private visit to Newmarket.

1. My winner for the week is Queen Maxima, who wore diamonds and emeralds — including the family’s butterfly brooch in her hair — at the Liberation Concert on Tuesday.